The guided visit to the compound came at a time when Israel, after more than 100 days of fighting in Gaza, appeared increasingly torn between the conflicting war goals of dismantling Hamas's military and its governing capabilities – and releasing the remaining 130 or so prisoners, which is What this will likely require is a diplomatic agreement that includes a ceasefire.
At least 25 of the prisoners have already been declared dead, and many Israelis fear time is running out for the rest. The military offensive has been slowed and complicated by the massive scale of Hamas's vast tunnel network that crisscrosses the Palestinian enclave and extends for hundreds of miles, according to Israeli intelligence.
A view of a small cell from the entrance, where there is a barred door open.credit: New York times
Under Khan Yunis alone, the military estimates that Hamas dug at least 160 kilometers of tunnels across several levels, creating an inverted, multi-storey complex.
“We are fighting in Khan Yunis above ground and underground,” said Admiral Daniel Hagari, the IDF’s chief spokesman, who led the tour of the subterranean complex. “This type of warfare is unlike any other modern battlefield anywhere in the world,” he added.
The high death toll in Gaza increased international pressure on Israel to end the war. Above ground, much of Gaza is in ruins.
“Israel does not seek destruction,” Hajari said. “This war is a tragedy.” He added that there is no way to destroy tunnels built under civilian areas without damaging the buildings above them, adding that “Hamas knows that.”
the times Other journalists accepted a military escort to visit the underground complex and secure rare wartime access to Gaza, which is essentially off-limits to outside media.
After a half-hour trip in an armored vehicle, the journalists were taken to an entrance on the ground floor that has an open metal door on the side of a three-story residential building that leads down the stairs to a maze of tunnels branching off in different directions. The neighborhood east of Khan Yunis was evacuated.
The entrance to the tunnel, located under the home of a Hamas activist, was rigged with explosives, according to the Israeli army. As soldiers of the 98th Parachute Division advanced along the underground route, they encountered blast doors and engaged in close combat with several fighters killed, the military said. By the time the soldiers reached the room and the carpeted cells, the hostages had been moved elsewhere, the military said, without saying when the hostages were last believed to have been there.
The complex was about a kilometer from the tunnel area, which was lined with electricity and communications cables, and about 20 meters – or about six floors – underground. To reach it required walking alone through complete darkness and walking up long flights of stairs carved into the ground. The air was thick and humid.
The house under which the tunnel entrance was found in Khan Yunis.credit: New York times
In the abandoned room, which was equipped with basic lighting equipment, the Israeli army said that soldiers found two drawings of a child. The army showed pictures of the two drawings – of a house against a backdrop of hills with the sun and clouds in the sky – which it said were drawn by Emilia Aloni, 5, an Israeli girl who was kidnapped with her mother, Danielle Aloni. 44, October 7, from Kibbutz Nir Oz. After nearly seven weeks in captivity, the Alonis family were released as the first group of 13 hostages, all women and children, under a temporary truce in November.
In interviews with Israeli television channels after the release of the hostages, Danielle Aloni showed pictures that she said her daughter had drawn during captivity, and they are very similar to those that the Israeli army said were found in the complex located under Khan Yunis.
Aloni said in television interviews that she and her daughter were taken into a tunnel shortly after arriving in Gaza, then walked for hours in what she described as an “underground city.” She said they eventually reached a sort of “cave” where there were about a dozen other captives, including wounded elderly people and a teenager.
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In a document published by Hamas on Sunday in which it presented its own account of recent events, the movement said it had “dealt in a positive and courteous manner with all civilians detained in Gaza.”
Many of the released hostages say they received little food and water, little if any medical treatment, and were held in difficult conditions.
The Israeli army said that some hostages were held in the central room and others in narrow cells with closed doors. The walls of the cells were covered with white tiles, interspersed with a vertical purple stripe, and at the back of each cell was a toilet and a sink; Some also had a small shower nozzle. The soldiers who were accompanying the journalists said that strands of hair were found in the cells, in addition to a bra. The military said a DNA test matched the hostages' hair, but did not say who.
Ayala Metzger, the 80-year-old daughter-in-law of Yoram Metzger, who remains detained in Gaza, told Israel's Channel 12 news on Sunday that his DNA was found on clothes he left at the compound.
The boiler provides hot water when there is electricity.
A small kitchen filled with leftover food and dirty dishes was found in the underground tunnels.credit: New York times
Any hostages taken in the complex had little sense of the time underground, or the devastation taking place on the surface.
Emerging back into the sunlight two hours after entering the tunnel, the silence of the reporters accompanying the Israeli army was replaced by the sounds of war. The whine of a drone in the sky. Sharp cracks and spikes raised plumes of dark smoke.
The neighborhood is a barren wasteland, surrounded by piles of dirt, rubble and disturbed roads.
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Inside the house, which Israel says belongs to a Hamas activist, there was a marble staircase indicating a level of opulence. Brass and gold curtains still hang on the dilapidated windows in the downstairs bedroom, and most of the exterior wall is gone. There wasn't a single building in the vicinity that looked habitable.
By Saturday, the tunnels and complex beneath the neighborhood had been blown up.
This article originally appeared on New York times.
